Hugo, Colorado, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
These conditions suit cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Hugo, no two yards are alike.
A low spot, a south-facing slope, or a stand of trees moves the frost date and sun across a single Hugo lot. Enter your address and we'll score 1,086 plants against your land's actual soil, sun, and frost.
We read public map data around Hugo — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Hugo — the short answer
Hugo, Colorado: USDA zone 5b, about 162 days between hard freezes, across 584 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 30
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 9
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~162
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 584 acres
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
Every figure names the dataset it came from. Hard-freeze dates are this town’s own 28°F normals: light frosts run a few weeks past them, and tender transplants usually wait 2–3 weeks after the last hard freeze.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 5b is Hugo's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Hugo's 162-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Hugo
Each reading below is measured for Hugo itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredHugo runs about 162 days between hard freezes — a moderate growing season.
There is room for the full run of cool-season crops plus a warm-season main crop, but the calendar is tight enough that a late spring or early fall frost still decides how much finishes.
Time warm-season transplants to your last hard freeze, and a few weeks of season extension turns a near-miss harvest into a sure one.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredHugo sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b.
The zone sets which perennials, shrubs, and fruit trees live through an average winter here — a plant rated for a colder zone is a safe bet, one rated warmer needs winter protection or gets treated as an annual.
Match perennials and fruit to the zone before you buy, so nothing you plant is a gamble against the cold.
USDA PHZM 2023
The kind of country Hugo is in
Hugo sits in the High Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Hugo's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Lincoln County is mostly Southwestern Tablelands. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Hugo
Every plant below cleared Hugo's own zone 5b and its 162-day season. Each card opens that plant's Colorado profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Hugo?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 2; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 30 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 9 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Late in the year the fall bench takes over — quick greens, radishes, and garlic that repays you next summer.
What's on the federal record near Hugo
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Hugo. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Loaf N Jug #68Underground Storage Tanks · 550 ft
- LINCOLN COMMUNITY HOSPITAL AND CARE CENTERBrownfields · 600 ft
- CDOT Highway 85Underground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- Theodore Lee LyonsUnderground Storage Tanks · 800 ft
- Parmers Automotive ServicesUnderground Storage Tanks · 800 ft
- Kar Korner Car WashUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- DORMAN BROTHERS, L.L.C.-HUGO PLANTBrownfields · 1500 ft
- CDOT HugoUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- Phillips 66 Mini-stopUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- Lincoln County Road and BridgeUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- SC01105502BBANitrate · 3.2 mi
- AT&T Hugo RsUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.9 mi
4 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Hugo's center, not your beds. Run your own address for what's upwind of you specifically.
Environmental Intelligence
The counts behind that headline — every source type on the record near Hugo.
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Hugo
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
- •Near a brownfield, raised beds of imported soil give your food clean ground.
- •On a private well, test for nitrates: above 10 mg/L the water needs treatment before irrigating.
Check your specific parcel in Hugo
Get exact proximity distances to contamination sources for your specific parcel — plus soil, sun, drainage, and 1,086 plant recommendations.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Hugo average
Your land is one point inside Hugo
Everything above resolves to Hugo as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 584 acres. Your parcel is one point inside that footprint. Slope, tree cover, a low spot that pools cold air, and what is in the soil are all resolved at the address, and none of them are visible at town scale. That is the honest boundary of this page, and the reason the next step is a reading of your own ground rather than a better local average.
Your Lot vs the Hugo Average
Hugo Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Hugo
- ●One soil character for all of Hugo
- ●Frost dates read at Hugo's scale: Apr 30 to Oct 9
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Hugo's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Hugo
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Hugo, Colorado — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Hugo averages can't show:
We read public map data around Hugo — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Hugo average
How we know this about Hugo
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this town’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at Hugo’s own record; boundaries and acreage from US Census TIGER/Line 2025; the contamination records from the federal sources named in their beats above. Soil is not read at town grain anywhere on this page — there is no town-resolution survey in our data, which is why you will find no soil grid here rather than a statewide one wearing a local label. The resolution ledger below names every figure this page inherited.
Common questions about Hugo
When does frost risk typically end in Hugo?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Hugo typically lands around Apr 30, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — earlier than the light-frost dates most charts quote. That marks the hard freeze, not the last light frost — lighter frosts keep biting past it, which is why tender transplants here wait until about May 21.
When is the first frost in Hugo?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Hugo typically arrives around Oct 9, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 25, so the watching starts about Sep 9 — about 162 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Hugo?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Hugo sees about 162 frost-free days — roughly Apr 30 through Oct 9, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 21 to Sep 25, about 127 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Hugo?
The federal record around Hugo is light — 17 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (12), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out — and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. Growing food here starts from a strong position; a soil test before new food beds settles any site-specific question.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Hugo?
From about Sep 9 the job here turns from planting to protecting — the last start even a 30-day crop can finish. As the season closes around the first 28°F hard freeze near Oct 9 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals), three moves buy time: row cover or an old sheet over tender plants on still, clear nights; water the soil the afternoon before a freeze, so it holds warmth overnight; and harvest tomatoes, peppers and basil before Oct 9. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Hugo's scale — its 5b band and its 162-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Hugo's numbers: we read soil, sun, drainage and frost at your exact address. Try it for 14 days — no card required.
What this page reads at Hugo’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Hugo's own scale — its own ~162-day season between 28°F freezes, the 584 acres it covers and 17 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Hugo's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Hugo's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 30 and Oct 9 and the ~162-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 17 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Hugo, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Hugo's boundary and the 584 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~162-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Hugo sits in the High Plains — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Hugo's 584 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Lincoln County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Lincoln County
- The growing challenges every Colorado grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Colorado
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom Lincoln County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Hugo's 584 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Hugo you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 584 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out, measured from the town centrehow we read the record →
- Where cold air settles, which slopes face the sun, and which way the wind runs on your own ground — measured at your address, and averaged away by any Hugo-wide figureread your own land →